Xia W, Liu Y, Du Y, Cheng T, Hu X, Li X. Onco Targets Ther. 2020;13:769–782.
At the request of the authors, the Editor and Publisher of OncoTargets and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Following publication, concerns were raised regarding the reliability of the western blot images used in Figure 2, Figure 5 and Figure 6. In addition, concerns were also raised regarding the alleged duplication of images in Figure 3C with those from unrelated articles. Specifically,
Figure 3C, panel miR-NC ADR (0µg/ml), appears to have been duplicated with images from Figure 2D, panel MG-63 spheroids (sh-con), in Ma and Zhang, 2022 (https://www.jcancer.org/v13p0290.htm) and Figure 2B, panel hFOB1.19 cells 72h, in Zhang et al, 2019 (https://www.jcancer.org/v10p6511.htm).
The authors contacted the journal requesting for the article to be retraced as they were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the alleged image duplication. The authors did provide original data for the study; however, this was also not satisfactory. The Editor agreed with the decision to retract the article.
Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.